Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Duvel on Draft

Just saw this on BA and I thought I'd put it out there:

http://beeradvocate.com/forum/read/1516977

"With all of the recent Duvel draft talk and Duvel Moortgat saying in the past that they'd never release Duvel in kegs, I figured I'd go to the source to get the 411. An official press release is in the works, but Duvel Moortgat told us that Duvel draft is indeed coming to the US very soon.

Here's what we can divulge to everyone in BA-land:

* The kegs are on their way.

* The official public launch will be Oct 1 or the 15th, at 20 or so bars in NYC--followed by a wider release. This all depends when the ship arrives.

* It could be pouring at The Return of the Belgian Beer Fest on Sep 27.

* Duvel draft is not the Duvel Gefilterd "green lettering" version seen here: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/222/5962 , even though the branding shows that Duvel draft will have green lettering vs. red and seperate glassware.

* Duvel draft is the same exact beer that goes into the bottle version. The only difference being that unlike the bottle, there will be no third fermentation in the keg, which means it's fermented only twice and will have a lower ABV (6.8%) as a result. Duvel goes through a primary fermentation and then a secondary fermentation in maturation vessels, the bottles go through a third (aka - bottle conditioning).

* It sounds like the goal of this release is to compliment Duvel in the bottle by providing the same Duvel experience on draft, with a slightly easier to drink beer (less alcohol) that will hopefully introduce the Duvel brand to a whole new audience of consumers--like draft beer drinkers."

All in all I think it would be great if bars across America started regularly offering Duvel, so this seems like a good thing. If you've never had a Duvel stop by your local beer store and pick one up. The only issue is that it looks like they've tinkered with the recipe so to speak (no bottle conditioning), and hopefully they will continue to offer the bottle conditioned version as well. You can technically "bottle condition" a keg, so I wonder if that was ever discussed as a possibility.

If you find that you like Duvel try to find Lucifer by Riva, I personally think that its an even better strong Belgian pale ale.